Greyson’s nursery has been so much fun to decorate. This room was previously our guest room, and we had painted the walls light gray. I loved the color, so even before we found out we were having a boy, I decided to go with gray, white and orange for the nursery. Casey painted white stripes on one wall for me. I put the room together piece by piece over the last few months and I’m really happy with how it all came together and how much money I was able to save in the process.

Here are some of my projects…

RUG

I love our hard wood floors, but I really wanted a comfy rug that I could sit or lay on to play with Greyson. I looked online and in local stores at so many rugs, but for the size and styles I liked the prices were just way more than I wanted to spend. I couldn’t find anything under $100 and most were several hundred. I started looking at faux fur rugs, but they were still more than I wanted to spend. After no success in finding something in my price range, I got the idea of making my own. I didn’t know if I could, but how hard could it be? I went to the fabric store, found this light grey fabric for less than $30, cut it to size and voila! I found the brand new carpet padding underneath on Craigslist.com for less than $10. The rug is so soft and comfy, easy to vacuum, will be easy to wash and doesn’t slide around…just what I wanted. =)

BEDDING

Crib bedding is very expensive! I think it’s because you can charge an arm and a leg for anything that you add the word “baby” to. I couldn’t justify paying hundreds of dollars for a bedding set, not to mention I couldn’t find one I even remotely liked. When I had no luck in my searching, I finally decided to order a custom bumper and find the other pieces separately. The custom bumper alone was more than I wanted to spend (close to $100), but since I planned on saving on everything else I decided to splurge a little. Before I ordered the bumper, I found gray fabric at Goodwill for $4. I had been leaning towards a solid colored crib skirt, and it didn’t make sense for me to pay a lot of money to someone else to make something that is was so simple without even trying it myself first. I’m a very novice seamstress, but I bought the fabric and decided to make the crib skirt myself. I figured if worse came to worst I would just throw it away and be down $4. I found a crib skirt tutorial online and for my skill level, I think it came out great (I realize it very wrinkled, but I’m not one to iron bedding). So now that I knew the crib skirt was gray, I had a better idea of what I wanted for  bumper. I searched FOREVER and finally found a fabric I liked. I was going for an eclectic kind of feel in Greyson’s room – some vintage, some modern – and this fabric is perfect. It reminds me of the old and new – it kind of has a vintage, lace doily look but at the same time it looks like something you’d see in a kaleidoscope. I matched that with white piping, gray interior and orange ties. I had Mellissa’s Boutique on etsy.com make the bumper. She did a great job!

FURNITURE

Side Table

I found this side table at Restore – a store full of used furniture, building materials, etc. which are donated and sold to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. It’s one of those fun hit-or-miss stores. I had been searching for a side table that was just the right height, with a drawer or shelf. I finally found this one – we had to buy a twin bed and dresser to get it…but it will be great to have when Greyson is older and I can paint the whole bedroom set, so it was worth it. We got the whole set for around $60. I painted one coat of paint and realized I liked how you could see through it a bit and decided not to do a second coat. My mom bought me those adorable book ends. The gray placemat on top is from Goodwill…it was a whopping 99 cents. =)

Toy Chest

This is a vintage chest from my Great Aunt Bunny. I LOVE it. I’ve had it for the last 4 years or so, but I’ve had it in my bedroom to store photo albums. It worked great for that, but as Grey’s room came together I started adding some neutral colors – tans and taupes – and I realized how perfect it would go in his room! It’s not huge, but he doesn’t really have many toys right now so it’s perfect for a baby. It’s also nice to have another place to sit if someone else is hanging out in his room with me. It needed a little TLC. It was lined with wood grain paper which had some stains, and there was no way to really clean it, and I knew it would get torn up with toys being thrown into it. I decided to line it with shelf liner and couldn’t believe when I actually found a woodgrain shelf liner that matched PERFECTLY! So this should work great for baby Greyson, and when he gets older and acquires a few more toys, we’ll have to get Uncle Mike to make one of his famous toyboxes. =)

Wooden Organizers

These wooden organizer’s were given to me by a friend, except they started out purple and pink. I painted them to match and lined them with the same shelf liner that I used in the toy box.

Dresser, Bookshelf and Knobs

The crib was the only furniture I got new – it was under $300. It wasn’t inexpensive, but I ordered it because the nursery is small and it was very convenient to have the changing table attached to the crib and it saved a lot of room. I will get lots of use out of it as I plan to have more babies and it will also later become a toddler bed and then a twin bed so I should get years of use out of it. The dresser/bookshelf I got at a yardsale and I gave it a fresh coat of paint. The knobs on the dresser I got at Restore for next to nothing and painted them gray and orange. The knobs on the changing table I bought on clearance at Anthropology and painted the middle orange to match.

Rocking Chair, Foot Stool and Shades

The rocking chair was $2 at a yard sale, and I painted it white. The footstool was a few dollars from Goodwill (don’t mind the cats wrestling – they wouldn’t get out of the way). I still need to make a little cushion to go on on the foot rest, but I’ll get to that eventually. The shades were the LAST TWO of the correct size at the Christmas Tree Shop! I couldn’t believe it when I saw them – I had to take down the display, but they look perfect in his room and I’ve never seen anything like them anywhere else. And they were only $15!

DECORATIONS

Hooks, Owls and Nightlight

I painted an old chair back and added some old hooks my dad gave to me. The vintage owl wall art is from Goodwill. The nightlight was mine in high school. It was gold, but I painted it orange to match Greyson’s room.

Framed Initials

I got the smaller frames at Goodwill for a couple dollars and the large black frame at a yard sale for $1. I painted the frames to match the room. I got the G at Anthropologie and put together the M and C on my computer and printed them as 5×7 photos. I thought it was a unique way to display Greyson’s initials.

Rhino

I got this cardboard rhino from Cardboard Safari. It wasn’t cheap for something made out of cardboard, but I had seen this really awesome paper mache goat head at Anthropologie, but I couldn’t justify paying almost $70 for it so I had to rethink things. I’m actually happier with this than I would have been with the paper mache goat. You can order different wall trophies in different sizes in either white or brown cardboard – most people put them together and hang them as is, but I covered each piece with paper to match Greyson’s room. Tedious, but fun. =)

CLOSET

And last but not least – here is Greyson’s closet. A lot of clothes…I know. =) Casey built me some shelves since there weren’t any in this closet…what a good daddy. I’ve actually organized more since I took this photo, but it probably won’t stay that way anyway. =)

And now we just wait for our precious little boy to arrive. He is due in less than a month, so it could be any day now! We can’t wait to meet him. God is good and we are so blessed!

This is a pencil portrait I drew recently. The woman in the portrait gave it to her husband for an anniversary gift. The heart with their initials in it had significance to them, and she wanted it incorporated into the portrait. It had been a while since I had done a pencil portrait, so I really enjoyed getting back into it. After I started this portrait, I found a used wooden drawing table that was the perfect size for my office. I was pretty excited because I had been looking for one, but didn’t have a lot of space and didn’t want to spend a lot. The only problem with this one, was that the last artist got paint on the surface, so the it was pretty rough – but I saw the potential and you really can’t beat $10…plus I knew my husband was just dying to use his new sander. =) Casey sanded and refinished the surface for me and now it’s perfectly smooth, making my drawing experience even better. =)

A funny thing I noticed while drawing, is that I’m so used to doing graphic design where there is an “undo” button for everything, that it occasionally pops into my head, but then I remind myself, I actually have to take out the eraser and undo it myself. =)

Below, is the original photo of her and her husband, as well as the heart photo. Don’t worry, the portrait is supposed to have the initials j.m. – not j.s. Thankfully she had me change that before they were set it stone. =)

And here are some of my progress photos.

In progress...

Still in progress...

Finished!

We have just launched the new Cirque du Jour website – check it out!

www.cirquedujour.com

When I began designing, Nicole had decided she wanted a flower illustration of some sort on her business cards. After going through various options, we decided, while the designs were nice, they didn’t jump out like I wanted them to. I wanted her business card to be unique and striking. If it was up on a bulletin board full of business cards, I wanted it to stand out. I also wanted everyone to know, at a glance, what her product is. With a name like Flowers by Nicole, people could easily think she’s a florist if they don’t read further (and they often don’t). I suggested she let me take some photos. Her flower’s colors alone are striking. She didn’t want her face to be front and center, but to almost be unrecognizable, so I took a photo at an angle where you can see how beautiful the flower can look in someone’s hair, but not showing too much of her face. With the photographs, it is clear what she creates. I took photos of some of her other flowers and put them on the back to show a few more examples of her products. After putting together a design with these photos, we both agreed this was the way to go.

Do you have a wedding coming up? Prom or a dance recital? Need a gift idea?

In addition to the many flower accessories that are available, Nicole also fills custom orders!

Become a fan on facebook!

facebook.com/FlowersByNicole

Check our her recently opened etsy shop!

FlowersByNicole.etsy.com

This is a logo I designed for Westchester Woods Furniture in Colchester, CT. They sell mainly unfinished furniture and some finished. The business has been around for about 10 years, but is under new ownership, and the new owners wanted a fresh, new look. It was a challenge to design a logo that was both unique and fitting. We went through many concepts together, but the owners really liked the tree concept. There are far too many “tree logos” out there, so this is a unique twist on the tree concept, with the various leaves representing the different types of wood that can be used to make furniture.

Be looking for the grand opening!

200 Lebanon Avenue

Colchester, CT 06415-1222

(860) 537-8882

http://www.etsy.com/listing/69893742/vintage-wool-tweed-hat-with-feather-man

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70157773/vintage-womans-navy-blue-wool-felt-hat

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70160039/vintage-man-or-woman-brown-corduroy-hat?ref=v1_other_1

Kelly Polizzi

Kelly is an amazing Mom with 2 adorable children (boy and girl). She is originally from London, England but moved to Connecticut, US when she married her American husband in 2005. Kelly’s passion is cooking, and she channels her creativity through cooking in some amazing ways. Kelly shares her ideas, recipes and photos on her blog Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler (LOVE the blog name). Check it out!

http://kpolizzi.blogspot.com/

I will continue to work on my shop and will soon have other templates as well such as valentine’s day card, graduation cards, Christmas cards, etc. Do you like the idea, but don’t see anything that is your taste or for the right occasion? Send me a conversation on etsy or email me at rachel.crafton@gmail.com to discuss it if you’re interested.

See my shop here: www.ohfiddlesticks.etsy.com

See below some of my new birth announcements. Thank you Gavin for being such a good model – I apologize you were depicted as a girl in many of these. =)

Is there anything you would like to see available in my shop or that may be of interest to someone else? Keep checking back to see new items! Thanks for looking. =)

Gavin is only 3 days old in these pictures. He was such a good boy! I took all these photos in the guest room of my sister’s house, and used props from around her house. It goes to show you really don’t need a studio setup to get great pictures. We cranked the space heater up to 80 degrees, so he was as happy as could be (even if I was dripping sweat). =)

It’s a good idea to get newborn pictures within the first 10 days of delivery, because it is amazing how much a new baby changes in the first couple weeks of their life! I’m sure the last thing a new mom wants to do is drag the whole baby room (outfits, diapers, props, etc.) along with their newborn to a studio to get pictures while still recovering from the delivery. Keeping your baby in your own home makes it easier to feed and change your baby. A happy baby is key to good pictures! To all you moms-to-be out there (in CT) shoot me an email if you would like any pricing on baby portraits. It is also a good gift idea if your friend is about to have a baby. I would also be willing to come to the hospital and catch the moments after (not during) delivery when the baby meets their family and friends for the first time. It would be more of a photojournalistic approach so that everyone can just relax and enjoy the new baby and just forget that I am there (except for the flash going off, of course).  Those are moments you will never want to forget.

Email me for quotes or questions.